No Child Left Behind – The Basketball Version

My friend Rob, who is a retired special education teacher, knows my passion for educating children to be skilled and knowledgeable participants in the emerging highly competitive global economy. He handed me an envelope. I read the contents. What follows is a summary of …

No Child Left Behind – The Basketball Version:

All teams must advance to the Sweet 16, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.

All kids will be expected to have the same basketball skills at the same time and in the same conditions.

No exceptions will be made for interest in basketball, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities, or disabilities.

All Kids Will Play Basketball at a Proficient Level:

Talented players will be asked to practice on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with athletes who aren’t interested in basketball, have limited athletic ability, or whose parents don’t like basketball.

Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th and 11th games.

This will create a New Age of sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimal goals.

If no child gets ahead, then no child will be left behind. They will be issued vouchers for moving closer to the successful team’s area.

Any children who do not show immediate promise, or who show serious basketball visual-motor deficiencies in early grades will be given the “Dribbles Test of Early Basketball Behavior”, even if the child has one leg or came from a country that has never played or supported basketball.

Even if there is plenty of evidence supplied by sports psychologists that there are hundreds of other conditions that can cause bad dribbling, the child will play successfully.

The administration may consider not requiring them to dribble since it actually is not required in order to be successful at basketball, but it sure helps.

A reasonable accommodation for students under a 504 plan would be to allow them extra distance when being guarded so they can pass the ball more proficiently.

Elevator shoes should also be allowed for students of below average height and any players over 6’2″ may have to have jump restrictions to make this fair to those who are vertically challenged.

The parents of the tall students might also be required to pay extra for the coaching of the short students since they obviously come from a genetically-advantaged background for basketball.

Is this humorous parody, yes it is. I did laugh for about a second.

More importantly, is this how government asserts their vast store of knowledge and insight into how our teachers should be educating their students? It seems the more the government interferes in the classroom the lower the standards become. Government does not understand that this isn’t about money; it’s about teacher talent and passion.

The United States is now experiencing dismal world wide rankings against 34 countries in spite of billions of dollars spent in government programs. The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.

This is what I fear for my daughter in public education. She has autism, and is highly gifted in math. This creates a problem. Being six years old and in the second grade, she’s ahead of the other kids in certain areas. We are studying multiplication at home, at school she is reviewing greater than/ less than. It’s frustrating. We are even having to use “creative language” to get her a 504 to allow her certain tactile diversions to help her succeed int he classroom because she doesn’t technically qualify under the state requirements. Despite having autism and ADHD, she doesn’t qualify for an IEP either… We are looking into homeschooling next year, it’s more important that she succeed and be able to do so at her own pace.

There are some wonderful home school sites. Google them, they are so willing to help. Susan Wise Bauer and her site http://www.welltrainedmind.com/ offers insight into home schooling. We home schooled both our sons, who ultimately attended MIT and are now successful young men. Every child is gifted and each child develops at their own speed. What matters is that we give them the time and support to run their race and to cross the finish line. No child should be measured against any other. They are all beautifully composed for their own purpose.